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COMMENTS:
Voted : ethanol production is a bad idea
No thanks.
There are so many people starving in the world, but we are going to ferment good food stocks so that we can drive around in our SUV's like jackassses we are? Of course with ethanol being not compatible with most cars, we are going to further destroy the envrionment producing ethanol cars, and get 80% less gas mileage on the fuel that are not ideal for the use?
in 08, Honda is going to come out with a Diesel Accord that gets 65mpg. I am going to get one of those. If we want to create bio-fuel, let the poor consume the food like nature intended, then gather the waste product and produce methane.
Ethanol is a bad idea, conceptually, morally, and economically.
by LCD on Fri Jun 15, 07 6:31pm
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That picture must be a joke. 1/2 gallon of oil per bushel? 1/2 gallon of oil cost a hell of a lot more than what a farmer sells a bushel of corn for.
Voted : I'm not sure
Because I'm fully expecting Big Oil to sabotage the works in some way, I'm not really leaning as heavily toward it.
Voted : ethanol production is a bad idea
i think lcd sums it up nicely in my opinion. seems kind of sinful to turn food into fuel when there are so many starving people.
Voted : ethanol production is a bad idea
Here are a few pertinent facts which may help shed light on this "scenario"....The U.S. Government subsidizes ethanol production at a rate of 51 cent per gallon...President Bush's call for the nation to cure its addiction to oil stoked a growing demand for ethanol, which is mostly made from corn. Greater demand for corn has inflated prices from a historically stable $2 per bushel to about $4. (excerpt from The Washington Post June 16,2007,UPI). Ranchers have to pay more for animal feed that contains corn. Those costs are reflected in cattle prices, which have gone from about $82.50 per 100 pounds a year ago to $91.15 today. Beef prices are up. So are the costs of milk, cereal, eggs, chicken and pork. One bushel of corn can produce at least 2.5 gallons of ethanol. It can also make 1.6 lbs. of corn oil, 10 lbs. of high protein feed, 2.6 lb of corn meal, or 31.5 lbs. of starch to make beverages or sweeteners. How big is a bushel?
A bushel began as a measure of volume, but the accepted standard for a bushel of corn is now measured in weight: 56 pounds. That's for shelled corn (after the husks and cobs are removed). Cornell Professor of Ecology David Pimentel makes the claim in the latest issue of the journal Natural Resources Research (Vol. 12, No. 2). The dubious economics of corn-based ethanol, Pimentel writes, are threefold:
In general gasohol is priced higher at the pump than gasoline yet yields poorer mileage per gallon.
Taxpayers are the source of $1.4 billion a year in subsidies that help make ethanol production profitable for agribusiness firms.
In addition to paying tax dollars for ethanol subsidies, says Pimentel, consumers can be expected to pay significantly higher food prices in the market place. Why? He cites the National Center for Policy Analysis' 2002 estimate that ethanol production is adding more than $1 billion to the cost of beef production. This, he says, is because producing the required corn feedstock for ethanol reduces the overall corn supply, adding about 2 cents a bushel to the price farmers receive for their corn, by his calculation. "Because about 70 percent of the corn grain is fed to U.S. livestock, doubling or tripling ethanol production can be expected to increase corn prices further for beef and livestock production and ultimately increase costs for the consumer," Pimentel states.
"Most of us wouldn't mind paying a premium for a homegrown fuel that's truly efficient, environmentally friendly and renewable," Pimentel said in an interview. "But ethanol from corn is none of those." Making a gallon of ethanol from corn, he calculates, requires about 29 percent more energy -- from fossil fuels -- than a gallon of ethanol can provide. At the same time, he said, ethanol has only two-thirds the energy content of the same volume of gasoline. Also, he noted, "Corn farming takes a terrible toll on the environment -- it causes more soil erosion and requires more insecticides, herbicides and nitrogen fertilizer than any other crop. And every gallon of ethanol produced results in 13 gallons of effluent pollution." Said Pimentel, "I can't call that renewable."
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So while that picture may be oversimplified, it is not totally "off the mark....
Voted : Cellulosic ehanol is a great idea
^But that's with corn/sugar cane based ethanol. The future is cellulosic ehanol, which is a great idea.
Voted : ethanol production is a bad idea
They may try to make it look good on paper, but when the monopoly get a hold of the means of production, they'll make Exxon-Mobil look like UNICEF.
Voted : ethanol production is a bad idea
we need all the land we have to make food.
by ABC on Sun Jul 29, 07 9:02pm
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